Hawaii Missile Alert Retracted by Civil Defense
by Andrew Walden
An 8:07AM Missile Alert message sent out to thousands of cell phones statewide this morning was in error according to an Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (EMA) tweet sent out at 8:20AM. The EMA retraction was later confirmed by Oahu EMA and the Pacific Command indicated it had not detected any inbound missile.
The EMA message below (scroll down) was received by cell phones statewide. Hawai'i Free Press has received at least one report of neighbors coming out of their homes to ask each other if the alert is real (many more reports below). No Civil Defense sirens were heard.
At 8:21AM a seperate Missile Alert was sent out to cell phones from the University of Hawaii system. It was retracted with a cell phone message at 8:31am. (Scroll to bottom to see message and retractions.)
At 8:45AM--a full 38 minutes after the false alarm--cell phones finally received a retraction message from Hawaii EMA.
UPDATE: 38 Minute Delay-- Hawaii EMA Got Time-Consuming Permission from FEMA Before Retracting False Alarm
UPDATE: FEMA: Ige Lying About 38 Minute Delay
Good news. The Federal Communications Commission will be investigating. We might actually get real answers instead of the usual public employees union coverup.
From FCC Chair Ajit Pai:
FCC Commissioners Brendan Carr and Jessica Rosenworcel agree and FCC Chief of Staff Matthew Berry confirms.
The Hill: ...an official statement from the FCC's director of media relations confirmed the investigation. "The FCC is aware of the situation in Hawaii and launching a full investigation into what happened," Brian Hart said in an emailed statement....
HNN: Scared Hawaii residents crawl into manhole cover for protection
HNN: 'Terrifying': False ballistic missile threat sends Hawaii into panic
“We got alerts on our phone … we opened our sliding glass door to look out onto the beach, we saw probably 10 different families running, not walking, running back to their room,” CNN producer Lorenza Ingram told CNN Saturday.
From Associated Press:
Students at the University of Hawaii at Manoa streamed out of the dorms, some still in bathrobes and pajamas.
Vehicles were parked inside the H3 tunnel as motorists sought the shelter of the mountain.
Hawaii Emergency Management Agency spokesman Richard Rapoza told AP that officials are still trying to figure out why the alert was sent.
“Right now the one thing we’re very confident about is that this is not a matter of hacking,” Rapoza said. “This was sent within the system.”
Rapoza said the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency was conducting a drill in-house when the alarm was triggered, which he said “typically” must be done on a manual basis.
“We do drills regularly to keep people up to speed,” Rapoza said. “The warning does not go out as part of the drill. There is no ‘test’ alarm.”
